Crow Call Redux
by Storm of Crows
Summary: A revamping of my original Crow Call. A young faunus works as a bounty hunter for the Vale PD. When an assignment has him revisit Beacon, a struggle to regain his memories ensues. Rated M for future lemons as well as language and gore.
1. Chapter 1

Crow Call

Chapter 1: Just Another Job

It was a cold and rainy night. The man in the trench coat frowned as he felt the raindrops drench his bright orange hair. "Seems like it's gonna be one of those days." He would sigh as he put out his cigarette. "How I hate the rain." He looked up, his one orange eye seeming to glow in the darkness of the night. "Well...better get this over with." He stepped out of the shadows and started to walk towards 10 men that were surrounding a small crate. The man could not hear what they were saying as he pulled out his pitch black tonfas from underneath his coat. "Evening gentlemen. It seems that you are all unlucky to meet me on this dismal night." He saw one of the men pull out a small pistol and, in the blink of an eye, the man with the gun would find that his arm has been detached from his body.

"I would prefer if we can do this in a civil manner. I really hate fighting you see." The men surrounding the crate looked at one another and most of them fled. The man in the coat would let them run as they were not important, nor where they his target. "Well Mr..." he would pull out a small piece of paper from a pocket in his coat, "ah yes. Mr. Sanayama. It seems that you have committed crimes against the city of Vale and are a wanted man. I have been hired to either take you in, or to...eliminate you...pick your poison, either way...you have already lost." He could see the fear in Sanayama's eyes, but knew he would put up a fight...they always did. "C-C-C-Could you...possibly be...the Bounty Hunter that everyone calls the Crow of Remorse?"

The man in the coat smiled a little, a rare occurrence for him. He hated that nickname, but it seemed to fit with him. "Yes, it seems you have heard of me." He would drive a hand through his feather-like hair to reveal his eye patch with his symbol, an orange crow with its wings spread wide sitting in front of two crossed blades. "But I would prefer if you didn't call me that...my name is Auriaco Cantum...but you need not remember it, as you won't be seeing me again after tonight." He moved as if in fast forward. In the blink of an eye, Auriaco was behind Sanayama with his bladed tonfa pressed against his neck. "Now, remember your choices? Are you going to put up a fight? Or will you come quietly?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Auriaco saw one of Sanayama's henchmen point a P-90 at him. He would sigh a little and use his semblance to form an orange blade and drive it through the man's skull, killing him instantly. Auriaco hated to kill, but sometimes it was a necessity...tying up loose ends and all that. "Now, where were we? Oh yes. It seems that you don't want to come quietly since you ordered one of your henchmen to kill me...which leaves me with no other choice then to kill you. Goodbye Mr. Sanayama." Auriaco would jab his other tonfa against the back of Mr. Sanayama and press a small button on the handle, which caused the tonfa to let loose a small burst of dust bullets, causing Sanayama's entire midsection to explode. Sanayama died a quick death, a trait Auriaco had taught himself after his graduation from Beacon Academy.

Auriaco would look up at the sky as Sanayama's body, or what was left of it, bled out onto the ground, coating the concrete in a mix of blood and rain. He would pull out another cigarette and light it, taking a small puff before pulling out a small tablet. He sent a message to the leading detective in the investigation into Mr. Sanayama's crimes, letting him know of his fate. Auriaco knew he would be paid a little less for not bringing him in alive, but money is money. Not that he needed it. He had more than enough to survive for 20 years, and the money he didn't give to Beacon or Signal was saved up in an offshore bank account, perfectly legal by the way.

He would take the cigarette out of his mouth and sigh again. "I hate rainy nights." He threw the cigarette on the ground, not even bothering to put it out as the rain took care of that for him. He then strode off into the night towards the city of Vale, one of the major cities on the planet of Remnant.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Ultimatum

When Auriaco returned to the Vale Police Station and told the detectives that he had finished the job, they smiled at him and gave him the other half of his money, about 2500 lien. Auriaco turned to leave but was stopped as the detective put a hand on his shoulder. "Aruiaco, wait. We have another job for you. Paying quadruple the usual." Auriaco's ears perked at that and he turned his head to the right to look back at the detective with his remaining eye.

"Quadruple the amount huh? What's the job?" He would turn around and pull a cigarette out of his pocket as well as a lighter. "Well...there have been reports of a small crime ring being run out someplace you know very well." The detectives looked at one another knowing how much their next words would throw Auriaco off balance. "The place is...Beacon Academy."

Auriaco hadn't even lit his cigarette before having it drop out of his mouth as it opened in surprise. In his mind, flashes of what was left of his memory came to mind. He remembered waking up in the Beacon infirmary with machines and tubes all over his body. As quick as the memory came, he pushed it out of his mind. The detectives looked at each other once again as they could see the anger flashing in Auriaco's eye.

"Why the fuck do you think I'd accept that job?" His voice dripped with anger and hatred, a sight not that uncommon when it had to do with Beacon. "You know how much I lost there. I lost my livelihood. You think I'd go back? No amount of lien would make me go to that place." He slammed his fist down on the desk in front of him, hearing the wood crack with the force of his anger.

The head detective stepped out from his office, a rare occasion as he usually tried to stay 'unaware' of Auriaco as his job was on the borderline of legality. "Auriaco, I normally don't say this as we both know the nature of your job is...questionable in legal standpoints. However, we all feel that you are the only one who can do this job. Not to mention it has already gained approval from Headmaster Ozpin, as well as most of the staff. They suggested that your job should be to go undercover as a substitute teacher for one of their regular staff who has just gone into labor and will be taking a 6 month maternity leave."

Auriaco grabbed the pack of cigarettes and crushed them in his hand. He pointed to his eye patch and rolled up the right leg of his pants to reveal a solid black prosthetic leg. "Do you SEE what I lost when I was in training to be a hunter? This is only the tip of the iceberg." The head detective slammed his hand onto the desk and glared at Auriaco. "I don't give a fuck what you think, you are taking this job. Or would you rather me arrest you for all those murders you've committed while under our jurisdiction? I've let them slide because you are only killing people that need to be killed, but murder is murder. Pick your poison."

Auriaco would growl in rage, but then calm himself down by sighing. "Fuck it, you win this round." The head detective smirked a little. With that, the night was over. Auriaco would head home with a small wad of cash in his pocket. He would look up to the night sky. It was still raining.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Substitute

It was 3 days after the discussion they had in the VPD offices. Auriaco was currently in an airship that was headed for Beacon. Next to him was Ozpin, as well as the chief of detectives. "Remind me again why the hell I'm doing this?" Auriaco would look between the two of them as he crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the cold steel floor of the airship. "Well," Ozpin started to say as he took a sip from his mug, "there have been reports of a crime ring hidden somewhere near Beacon. Normally, we would handle this kind of thing ourselves as only the most foolish would think it a good idea to have a crime ring anywhere near Beacon. But, all our attempts at even locating the stronghold of said crime ring have been futile." He took another sip out of his mug and looked to the chief of detectives. "So, we asked for a little help, and Phillip here suggested you. I agreed as I knew you. Plus, I think having you back here at Beacon may bring you out of that little slump you have been in."

Auriaco had to restrain himself from just beating the living hell out of Ozpin right then and there. In his head, Auriaco was reliving the day he woke up in the Beacon imfirmary. He was a boy of 18 years old at this time. He remembered nothing of how he got there, or why he was at Beacon in the first place. He barely even remembered his name. However, it was Ozpin who came to let him know of what had happened. How Auriaco and his team, AMBR, had been sent on a training exercise to the Forever Fall, where they had come under an ambush by a rather large horde of Ursa.

Before Auriaco could finish this daydream, he was ripped out of it as quickly as he had gone in. Now was not the time to be living in the past. That would just end up getting him killed. "Slump? What slump? I'm perfectly fine." Even he knew he was lying, but he couldn't tell why he was lying. He was perfectly content with his life as it was. He was happy, he had money, he had food, and he had a roof over his head, when he actually went home that is. Only thing he was missing was a social life and romance. But he chose to forgo those. They only got in the way.

Ozpin would look at Auriaco and frown a little. He knew what the poor boy had gone through. Losing his team that way. Especially when he was the leader of the team. But that was all in the past, and Ozpin was not about to dig up old wounds. As they were speaking, the airship was descending down to the landing dock. "Well, this has been a fun talk. But we are about to land, so I suggest you get ready to start teaching." Ozpin would look towards Auriaco and nod a little.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: A Look into the Past

When Auriaco stepped off the airship and looked towards Beacon, he would sigh and close his eyes. Instead of the blackness that one would normally see when they close their eyes, Auriaco would be taken back 4 years. He remembered stepping into Beacon for the first time. A new student, and a rare case of a Faunus being accepted into Beacon. He quickly made friends with a group of 3 girls, Bluerose Robin, Marygold Titania, and Riko Setsuko. Auriaco and these three girls would come to find out that they would be on a team together, forming Team AMBR. He didn't remember much of his first year, but he did remember he got close to Bluerose, to the point that they became a couple.

In their second year, Team AMBR was at the forefront of most of Beacon's ops. They were sent all over Vale to take out small hordes of Grimm and were hailed as heroes that were close to breaking even the fame of Summer Rose. However that all changed one day when they were on a routine training exercise in the Forever Fall. It had been a normal exercise, Marygold was slacking off, as usual, and Riko was off somewhere private doing whatever it was she did when she was alone, leaving Auriaco and Bluerose to do all the work. Things were going well, nothing unusual had happened so far, which was bad. Usually Goodwitch had a few surprises in store for them.

About an hour into the exercise, Riko returned from wherever it was she was lurking around, but hot on her heels was a horde of about 40 Ursa. They all drew their weapons, Bluerose pulling out her massive blade, Marygold pulling out her morning star, and Riko was already using her semblance to fire off some of her spells at the Ursa. The battle lasted about 30 minutes and the Ursa were winning. Marygold had been taken out by an Ursa taking a huge bite of her side, her armor and aura not standing a chance. Riko had been impaled by a falling tree that was knocked down by a couple of the Ursa, and Bluerose had her bowels gouged out by one of the Ursa. Before Bluerose had died she had used her massive blade to take out a good portion of the Ursa, but it was futile. The Ursa just kept coming with no end to them. By the end of the battle, it was Auriaco against 15 Ursa. He knew he didn't stand a chance, but he wasn't going to run. He ran headlong into the group of Ursa and took out about 5 of them before he was knocked to the ground. One of the Ursa went to claw at his head and Auriaco had barely dodged before losing his head. However the Ursa had managed to scratch out his left eye, leaving Auriaco with half of his vision. He gave up, knowing this would be the end of him. He felt one of the Ursa rip his right leg off of his body, and just before he lost consciousness due to bloodloss, he swore he swore he saw a pair of heeled feet running towards where he lie dying.

Just as quick as the nightmarish memory came to him, it was gone in a flash as Auriaco would open his eyes and start walking towards Beacon. As he was walking he would see 4 girls running towards the airship he just left. The girl in the lead wore a bright red cloak, the one behind her had bright yellow hair, the next one wore black and wore a bow on her head and Auriaco could swear he saw it twitch a little. The final girl in this train wore a pure white outfit to match her flawless white skin and her white hair which was up in a side ponytail held up by a snowflake shaped scrunchie. The first three girls would ignore him as they seemed to be in a rush, but the final girl would look at Auriaco with a look of disgust. He assumed it was because of the way he looked, as he was far from the best dressed, but he quickly put it out of his mind. It wasn't his business what the students thought of him, and the chances of him having them in his 'class' was minimal.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Introduction

"Come on Weiss, we are going to be late for Ozpin's announcement!" Ruby was wearing her red cloak, as usual, as she tried to speed up the drowsy Schnee heiress. "Well why did Ozpin decide to have this announcement at…" Weiss had to look at the clock on the shared nightstand of the 4 bed room, "10 at night?" Ruby could only sigh at the spoiled heiress. "I don't know, but come on! We are going to be late if we don't hurry!" The hyperactive leader of team RWBY was quickly out the door, leaving Weiss by herself to contemplate things. Did this meeting have to do with that man she saw with Ozpin earlier today? Sighing, she decided the only way she could find out was to see what Ozpin had wanted this late at night.

Auriaco strolled down the hallways of Beacon. It had been four years since he last walked through these halls. Four years since he had been happy. Four years since he had seen the face of the one woman he had ever truly loved, four years since he had felt her embrace, her kiss, her love, her…buzzing? He had been awoken from his little day dream, or was just a dream since it was no longer day, by a light buzzing from his tablet that he kept in his pocket. Grunting lightly out of frustration he would take it out and, pushing the answer call button, was greeted with the face of Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon and the one who Auriaco now worked for…temporarily at least.

"What do you want Ozy?" Auriaco frowned at the white-haired man on the other side of the screen. "I don't want anything Auriaco, other than for you to come to the grand hall so I can introduce you to the students." Ozpin had a calculating look on his face as he spoke, something that always pissed off Auriaco. "Fine, I'll be there in a little bit…but I am not going to be your puppet." Angrily, he closed the channel between him and Ozpin as he stuffed the tablet back into his pocket. A few students walked by him as this conversation was going on, one of them was a blonde boy while the other was a red-headed girl, both seemed to be really close to each other but didn't seem to be a couple. This only caused to infuriate Auriaco even more, yet he couldn't figure out why. He'd have to punch a wall or something when he got the next chance.

Sighing and calming himself down just enough to walk, he decided he had kept Ozpin and the students waiting long enough, so he started to head over to the grand hall. However, his progress was interrupted as he turned a corner and ran into a girl much shorter than his own towering 7 feet 2 inches, which caused both of them to go stumbling down onto their asses.

"Hey! Dammit watch where you are going!" were the first words out of the mouth of the girl who laid there with her legs splayed open. If Weiss had been wearing her normal skirt, it would have given this stranger a perfect view of the blue and white striped thong she was currently wearing, but she was already in her pajamas as it was so late that she planned to head to bed right after Ozpin's announcement. "What the hell is your problem you little bitch?" Auriaco was furious. First he was forced to come back to this dreadful place full of crappy memories, then he was forced to become a proxy professor to serve as his cover, and now here he was sitting on the floor after running into this white haired broad. "First of all, I walk where I damn well please, secondly, shouldn't you be in bed little girl?" Weiss could only scoff at the rudeness of Auriaco. However, it was at this point that she noticed his tail as he started to stand up. This brought a smirk to her face. Not a menacing smirk, but a knowing smirk. "So you're a faunus? No wonder you are so rude."

This girl was driving Auriaco crazy. But she was also doing something else to him. Just as she had called him a faunus, a memory had decided to gain control of Auriaco's mind. A long forgotten memory of the day he had met Bluerose Robin, the woman he would eventually fall in love with. She too had the same reaction upon finding out Auriaco was a faunus, however she was not mean about it, nor was she rude. Instead, she was much like this girl. Using it as a pressure point to push his buttons. Sadly, it wasn't working with this girl as Auriaco just picked her up by the collar of her shirt, swung her over his shoulder, and carried her into the great hall. "Anyone know who this girl is? We ran into each other in the hallway and I wanted to make sure she got here safely." His voice had an unusually calm air about it. It was unnatural for him to be this calm where earlier he had been livid with anger. He couldn't place the reason, but his mind was brought back to reality when a black and red-headed girl wearing a red hood came swooping in to claim the white-haired girl that was still over Auriaco's shoulder, silent with shock that anyone would even manhandle her in this way. "I'm soooooo sorry sir. It won't happen again, I promise." With that, both the red-hood and the white haired girl were gone. Auriaco would have then left the room if Ozpin hadn't gotten his attention. Sighing, Auriaco would step up onto the stage and stand in front of the mic that Ozpin had laid out for him. Tapping it lightly, he would hear a staticy discharge from the speakers and frown.

"Good evening everyone. I know it's late, so I'm just going to get down to business. I'm sure you all know that one of your professors, her name escapes me at the moment, has recently left for maternity leave. I will be filling in for her until she returns. I would tell you all my name because you little shits don't need to know it, I won't be here that long, so for simplicity you can just call me Sir. With the introductions out of the way, you little shits can get back to bed." He frowned as he stepped off the stage and left the meeting hall to go out into the courtyard. He needed a smoke, and he needed one badly.


End file.
